Academy Director Dr Peter Vint, who led the recruitment process, said: “Dave is a proven and successful architect of scientifically-informed and expertly-implemented player and coach development systems.

“He has delivered this with a unique blend of football coaching experience and expertise in the applied sciences related to coaching effectiveness, skill acquisition, and football performance.

“He is a thoughtful, innovative professional who possesses the skills, experience and personality to adapt to meet the individual needs of our players and our staff.

“His commitment to player and coach development is reflected by the excellent body of work he has already delivered in these areas and I am genuinely excited to bring him to USM Finch Farm.

“I believe Dave’s experience and understanding of global high-performance environments will be a tremendous complement to our coaches, to me and our Academy Management Team, and to our entire Academy staff. I am excited to bring him on board and I know he will be a huge asset to Everton.”

Adams added: “I’m really excited to be joining Everton Football Club. This is a big club, with big ambitions to be the best and to produce world-class players.

“My vision is to work with the coaches here and support the player development process to enable the most talented players in the Academy to progress into the first team.

“Everton has a proud history of producing good, young players. The Club is renowned for that and I’m excited by the opportunity to work in an environment where the vision is to be the best.

“I’ve got experience of delivering large-scale player development programmes and the idea is to work with the excellent staff we already have in place to map out a methodology that reflects the Everton philosophy.”